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Thanksgiving lesson plan: Turkey Trouble by Wendy J. Silvano

Not everyone is happy at Thanksgiving!


Topic: Thanksgiving, farm animals, adjectives

Level: A1

Thinking skills: matching, labelling, creating

Language skills: listening and speaking

Trinity College London exam: GESE 1

Story outline: a turkey realises that it is almost Thanksgiving and that he is going to be the main dish at the farmer's dinner table. He decides to dress up as different animals on the farm to avoid being cooked. However, the last animal he decides to turn into is picked as a replacement, as the turkey is nowhere to be found. Turkey has to think about a new way to escape. Fast!

Pre-reading

Review names of farm animals. The following are included in the story: horse, cow, pig, sheep and rooster.

Tell the story

Ask students to identify farm animals, as they appear in the story.

Post-reading

After telling the story, check what students remember by asking where does the story take place and in which order do animals appear.

Proceed to writing a list of adjectives used to describe animals in the story:

tall- fat - dirty - white - short - skinny - clean - dark (brown)

Ask students to complete the following table. You can give them no information or some information, depending on age and abilities. They can work individually or in pairs.

Animals

Adjective

Opposite

horse

tall

short

cow

fat

skinny

sheep

white (light)

brown (dark)

rooster

similar

different

Follow up

You can ask your students to get creative and think of more animals in which the turkey can transform itself into, including made-up animals. Students can either describe them or draw them.


Try it out and let us know how it goes. Follow us on Facebook and IG @chatterbox_speakers.hub



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